For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here.

To get to Tomales Bay from San Francisco, you borrow the nearest available convertible and then motor north across the Golden Gate Bridge for about an hour, winding up, down and around the most dramatic stretch of Highway 1 switchbacks this side of Big Sur.

When you hit Point Reyes, the road splits. Picture a tuning fork. The western prong is wild parkland: a cypress-tree tunnel, an elk reserve, a lighthouse. The eastern prong is more civilized, characterized by surprisingly good shopping and outrageously good eating. In between, protected on both sides, is the bay itself — a Pacific inlet 15 miles long and narrow enough to see across.

Related Stories

The area remains wonderfully, stubbornly agricultural — dotted with so many dairy farms that milk practically runs from the taps. And it feels a thousand miles away, even though it’s close enough that you can stay all the way through suppertime and still be home for “SNL.”

Morning

For a day this full, you’ll need fuel. Start at the northern end of the bay with a coffee and a Chocolate Devil (a sweet, snail shell-shaped pastry blanketed in powdered sugar) at the indoor-outdoor Tomales Bakery.

Then pull on your swim trunks. Anyone can spend a day tooling around Tomales Bay. You’re getting in it. Because the most rewarding way to experience the bay is via kayak.

On the western flank of the bay in Inverness, laid-back outfitter Blue Waters will hook you up with a boat, give you a quick paddling lesson, and then either accompany you on a guided tour or shove you off in the direction of cliff-hugging homes perched vertiginously above the shoreline. To take advantage of a tailwind on the return trip, you start heading north, paddling at your own pace for two or four hours, in either a single or double sit-on-top kayak. Pause to watch jet-black cormorant water birds dive for their breakfast, admire the landscape and the real estate, and if you spy a secluded cove, feel free to pull right up: Presto, private beach.

Blue Waters opens at 9 and the earlier you go, the better. Later hours bring stiff winds. Plus, as the tide washes out, the launch area becomes nothing but mud.

Midday

You’ve worked your upper body, now stretch your legs with a hike. Two nice jaunts in particular start a short drive away, just up Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. The closer one leads you down a flat, pebbled path to the sand dunes of Abbotts Lagoon. It’s only a mile of easy walking from the parking lot to the ocean, framed on both sides by waving seagrass in 50 shades of green. Slow down and look for the California red-legged frog or Myrtle’s silverspot butterfly, which despite its name is as orange as a tangerine. You’re also apt to spot quail along the trail.

If you’re hoping to see bigger game, drive to the end of the road and tackle the Tomales Point Trail at Pierce Point Ranch, a former dairy operation built in the 1850s. This hike is longer (4.7 miles each way) and steeper (with angry waves crashing on the rocks down below), but the payoff comes in the form of tule elk — great herds of them, dozens in your sightline at once. Don’t make any sudden movements, and they’ll let you watch them graze.

By now you’ve worked up a formidable appetite. Hook all the way around to the east side of the bay and reward yourself with as many oysters as you can afford at The Marshall Store, a waterfront smokehouse with gourmet ambitions. You’ll pay San Francisco prices (almost $4 apiece!) for these babies, but there’s simply nothing better than sitting outside with a plate of barbecued bivalves, watching the sailboats bob.

Photo: Garrick Ramirez

Point Reyes Books is owned by Stephen Sparks and Molly Parent, who met while working at San Francisco’s Green Apple Books and acquired the 16-year-old shop in 2017.

Point Reyes Books is owned by Stephen Sparks and Molly Parent, who...

Grab a sleeve of brown-sugared beef jerky for the road and then head 15 minutes south into Point Reyes Station, the hamlet that anchors Tomales with its charming downtown. Your first stop is Point Reyes Books, the platonic ideal of a modern indie bookstore, a smartly curated and wholeheartedly welcoming shop with an emphasis on the natural world.

Now pop across the street: You’re going to the grocery store.

Palace Market is a supermarket with a surprise. At the very back, just behind the deli case, you’ll find a machine that dispenses luscious soft-serve ice cream made with buffalo milk from Double 8 dairy in Petaluma. Don’t miss the velvety vanilla.

Finish your trip to town with a visit to Captain Oko, a womenswear and design boutique founded by a former photo stylist with cosmopolitan taste. Here’s where you’ll buy that ombre-striped Peruvian parka you didn’t know you needed.

Evening

After your snacky afternoon, you may not want a huge dinner — just a drink and a bite. Head back to Inverness and snag a seat at the sophisticated (but unpretentious) Saltwater Oyster Depot. Order a Scrimshaw pilsner and the chicken liver pate, complete with jalapeño jam on charred toast.

Finish the day at Nick’s Cove, on the northern edge of Tomales Bay, an eatery with hunting-lodge vibes and a menu straight out of the Carter administration. Head to the bar. Call for a cocktail. And walk it to the shanty at the end of the dock — that’s the Boat Shack, an unstaffed clubhouse where guests can unwind with their nightcaps and pound an upright piano until closing time.